How to Choose a Conveyor: Load, Layout, and Throughput
The right conveyor is decided by the load and the line rather than the brand: light-to-medium products run on reconfigurable modular aluminum conveyors, while pallets and heavy unit loads need engineered heavy-duty conveyors built for tonnage.
GUIDE
Most conveyor regret traces back to one mistake: specifying by catalog instead of by the load and the layout. Buy too light and a pallet line chews up a conveyor built for cartons; buy too heavy and you pay for tonnage capacity a small-product line never uses; lock in a fixed system and then have to reconfigure the line next quarter. These five questions get you to the right class of conveyor before anyone quotes you.
1. How heavy is what you’re moving?
This is the fork that decides most of it. Light-to-medium products (parts, cartons, work-pieces up to roughly a ton) run best on a modular aluminum conveyor. Pallets and heavy unit loads, into the tens of thousands of pounds, need a heavy-duty engineered conveyor. The two aren’t competing options; they’re built for opposite ends of the weight range, and matching the conveyor’s class to the load is the single biggest spec decision.
2. Loose product, cartons, work-pieces, or pallets?
Form factor follows weight. Loose product and cartons move on belt or modular-chain conveyors. Work-pieces that have to be positioned for assembly run on timing-belt or pallet-handling conveyors that index and locate the part. Palletized and unitized loads need chain-driven live roller, with rollers sized and driven for the pallet rather than the product. If you’re handling both (product upstream, pallets at the end of the line), you’re looking at two conveyor classes rather than one.
3. How often does the line change?
A modular aluminum conveyor is built from extrusion you can reconfigure: extend it, re-route it, change the layout as the line evolves. That flexibility is the point for assembly lines and high-mix production. A heavy-duty engineered conveyor is a fixed system, specified and built for a defined flow; it trades reconfigurability for the tonnage and throughput a pallet line needs. If your layout is going to move, lead with modular.
4. What’s the environment?
The room changes the conveyor. Washdown or food-grade lines need stainless or washdown-rated belt construction rather than a standard conveyor repurposed into a wet environment. Heavy industry and automotive lines need drag chain and live roller engineered for abuse and duty cycle. Spec the conveyor for the environment up front. Retrofitting a standard line to pass a washdown or duty requirement is the expensive way to learn this.
5. Does it have to feed automation?
If the conveyor stages loads for a robot cell or a mobile-robot (AMR/AGV) fleet, the hand-off matters as much as the conveyor. Heavy-duty systems add the pieces that make that clean: turning crosses to reorient pallets in line, load stackers and pallet inserters at end-of-line, and AMR/AGV interfaces so the mobile fleet picks up without a manual step. Designing the hand-off with the conveyor rather than after is what keeps the automation fed at rate.
When a conveyor isn’t the answer
Sometimes the right move isn’t a conveyor at all. A robot transfer, an AMR, or an indexing table fits the job better. We’ll tell you when that’s the case. The goal is a line that moves your product at rate, whatever the mechanism.
You leave able to tell, in five questions, which class of conveyor your line needs, modular aluminum or heavy-duty engineered, and why.
WHAT WE REPRESENT
The lines M6 represents for this application
- mk North America: modular aluminum conveyors for light-to-medium products and reconfigurable assembly lines.
- Industrial Kinetics (IKI): heavy-duty engineered conveyors for pallets and unit loads up to 50,000 lbs.
KEEP READING
Related guides and pages
COMMON QUESTIONS
Common questions
How do I choose the right conveyor?
Start with load class. Light-to-medium products and reconfigurable lines run best on a modular aluminum conveyor; pallets and heavy unit loads need a heavy-duty engineered conveyor. Weight, form factor, how often the line changes, the environment, and whether it feeds automation decide the rest.
What’s the heaviest load a conveyor can handle?
Modular aluminum conveyors typically carry products up to about 2,200 lbs. Heavy-duty chain-driven live roller systems handle pallets and unit loads up to 50,000 lbs.
What’s the difference between modular aluminum and heavy-duty conveyors?
Modular aluminum is reconfigurable extrusion for light-to-medium product and flexible layouts. Heavy-duty engineered conveyors are fixed systems built for pallet tonnage and throughput. Different weight class, different job.
Can a conveyor feed pallets to an AMR or robot cell?
Yes. With a turning cross or an AMR/AGV interface, a heavy-duty conveyor stages and hands off pallets so the automation picks them up cleanly.